Does anyone understand the point of advertising a game doing something that, after downloading, it does not do? - eviltoast

It seems like if what you’re showing is what you understand they find appealing and fun, then surely that’s what should be in the game. You give them that.

But instead, you give them something else that is unrelated to what they’ve seen on the ad? A gem matching candy crush clone they’ve seen a thousand times?

How is that model working? How is that holding up as a marketing technique???

    • Ottomateeverything@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      This is a >11 minute video, which winds around the truth, but ultimately the creator trying to reason about what’s going on… But his conclusions end up being incorrect. Don’t waste your time.

      These videos are made to gauge interest in game ideas by making up ads, and the seeing what engagement is like. If people will click on an ad to download a game, they don’t know if that game is real, but their clicking says they are interested. And if it’s successful, the game may incorporate the idea as mini game, within their existing gams, and see how it pans out in actual game play.

      This is idea testing, it’s not deceit trying to hook you up into their existing game by baiting you with something else. That might be a secondary side effect but this is not the primary goal.

      This creator is totally misreading this.

      • JoYo@lemmy.ml
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        9 months ago

        They cover A B testing part in the video.

        They also cover the marketing disconnect from the game devs.

        I’m not sure how you came to the conclusion that the video misread it.

        I also don’t care how you came to the conclusion so misread me all you want.

        • Ottomateeverything@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          They cover A B testing part in the video.

          It’s not A B testing.

          They also cover the marketing disconnect from the game devs.

          It’s not really a “marketing disconnect”

          I’m not sure how you came to the conclusion that the video misread it.

          Because I have been involved in the industry and know what these ads are for. The video is blaming things like trying to swindle people into downloading a different game, false advertising, misdirection, and is blatantly calling it “lying” in the title. That it’s trying to pit people into mini games to get them hooked on the outer game. That’s not what these ads are for. At all.

          He’s claiming they know what people want but don’t want to build it… But they are building it?

          I came to this conclusion because the video is just blatantly wrong.

          These ads are made to test popularity of game ideas before they bother to build the whole thing as a standalone game. He’s reading into what he’s seeing. I have worked with these companies and know their exact reasoning and it’s not what he’s claiming. He’s just wrong.

          I like Upper Echelon, but this take is just misinformed and wrong.

    • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      That is insane. Makes me want to follow these trends and make the actual game. Put ads in it, charge a dollar or two to get rid of them. Give the people what they saw and want while also making myself not egregiously poor.

      • pixxelkick@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        The thing is folks have proceeded to do effectively that, make the game you see in the ad… and…

        You realize the game isn’t actually fun, it’s pretty boring. The only driving force of the ad is your frustration at watching a person fuck up the game on purpose.

        People made faithful clones and it became painfully obvious its not actually interesting or fun, and you quickly get pretty bored of it. There’s not much skill involved.

      • Ottomateeverything@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        It is insane. It’s also incorrect - that’s not what’s happening here.

        There is a market of “games that were ads people liked that never got made” though - so you wouldn’t be the first.